pass for somebody/something phrasal verb (see also pass)
if something passes for another thing, it is so similar to that thing that people think that is what it is:
With my hair cut short, I could have passed for a boy.

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

pass for
pass for (someone/something)
to appear to be someone or something else.
A lot of what passes for humor these days is just anger expressed in the form of a joke.

Although he's 35, he could still pass for a college student.

[TahlilGaran] English Idioms Dictionary ▲

pass for something
pass for (someone/something)
to appear to be someone or something else.
A lot of what passes for humor these days is just anger expressed in the form of a joke.

Although he's 35, he could still pass for a college student.

[TahlilGaran] English Idioms Dictionary ▲

pass for something
• pass for/as (someone or something)
to succeed in being accepted as someone or something
The young woman was trying to pass for a reporter when she went to the concert.

[TahlilGaran] English Idioms Dictionary ▲

pass for
v. phr. To be taken for; be considered as.
Charles speaks Arabic so fluently that he could easily pass for an Arab.

[TahlilGaran] English Idioms Dictionary ▲

pass for someone
pass for (someone/something)
to appear to be someone or something else.
A lot of what passes for humor these days is just anger expressed in the form of a joke.

Although he's 35, he could still pass for a college student.

[TahlilGaran] English Idioms Dictionary ▲

pass for someone
• pass for/as (someone or something)
to succeed in being accepted as someone or something
The young woman was trying to pass for a reporter when she went to the concert.

[TahlilGaran] English Idioms Dictionary ▲